waders

Go to the wetlands. You will find so much life around you that it will be impossible not to be admired again.

I found in photography my way to survive daily work, house and family stress. It is a spa for my mind. Better yet, it forces me to get out and walk, and the noise of birds there is amazingly calming to my boiling brain.

Many mornings I wake up really early, at sunrise, and take my coffee and my camera to see the how the first sunlight triggers activity in nature. You find so many types of ducks and shoreline birds you almost have to become a detective trying to identify them: bills, feathers (pretty misleading because they change depending on age and season), legs, behavior, size.

Birds are very fast and fly in the split of a second, in any direction, making bird photography a challenge. Even better so you won’t get bored easily.

Through social networks you can get in touch with bird fans. Very nice people, all of them. Many will give you support when you don’t know what type of bird you are talking about or when you have doubts about the best gear to use.

My gear

A DSLR (A refurbished Nikon D7100, which is DX, tripod, and zoom lens. All for $1020). Tripod can wait. You can even get a very good camera with starter kit, which includes a 300mm zoom to start your practice, both Nikon and Canon offer this. You can find this kit for $500 in stores and online. And if you ask me, bridge cameras like Coolpix are very very good. Videos is less challenging there. In that case you will need to get closer to the birds. You can do it!

Photography was a hobby when I was in my twenties, and stopped when I became a mom. By then, DSRLs had replaced SLRs and I chose video, until I created my first Instagram account. Just one year ago I bought a book at the MOMA in San Francisco and I decided to take my camera again and do something different. Why birds? Because they are difficult to capture, and beautiful.